Samsung Gear VR - Does anybody have a WORKING example?

[jellix]

Hi,

simple question: Does anybody has built a WORKING project for Samsung Gear VR? I'm not talking about a theoretical solution that should work but an example that can directly be run in the "Samsung internet" browser (the only one that is compatible to Oculus)

I know that there are some camera-types and some VRDeviceOrientationFreeCamera-examples in the playground. But I have the Gear VR here and am trying to get one example running. Without success after one day of trying.

[ozRocker]

You can try this little VR scene I put together.  It works on my iPhone browsers

http://www.punkoffice.com/vr/

 

[dbawel]

 

@jellix -

@ozRocker 's scene is an excellent example to work and to learn with. And if you want a Playground scene to work with to understand and test options and properties quickly, then try the PG scene below. If you make this full screen and/or add any other VRCameraOrientation controls, you'll see how it all works. Also try the VRJoystick controls as well. These all work well with my GearVR, and if you haven't done so yet, install the Samsung Internet browser, and then you can use scnes these within the oculus app - just make certain to enable WebGL in the Samsung Browser. This is one way to do it, otherwise, use Chrome, Mozilla, Safari, etc., and don't plug in your phone into the mini USB of the GearVR - this is how I handle most any new VR development. Here's the Playground scene:

http://www.babylonjs-playground.com/#27FN5R#19

Cheers,

DB

Please post whatever you come up with, so the rest of the community can also benefit from what you learn here. There are a few of us working with the GearVR and other VR hardware such as the very cool VIVE, so you're definately in the right place. Just make sure and share any scenes -  since if you continue, you're now one of us very few who are taking this seriously for development  - at still a very early time without using the Oculus Dev Kit and Dev code - which is very simple to use, but will quickly limit you in what you will be able to accomplish without UE4, Unity, etc. You're going to see the area of VR development grow exponentually at the end of this year, and it starts hardcore before this - but this coming Christmas is when things will really get rolling if you look at what Sony and Microsoft have planned. And definately check out Majic Leap, as I work with them on some level (mostly with Weta who is their key content developer and Richard Taylor sits on the ML board), and once ML is released (I can't say when, but it's not that far away), then EVERYTHING changes. Brave new world doesn't even begin to describe what's on the horizon here.

If you need anything, just come here friendly and ready to ask, and we'll point you where we're able to -  thus far. Good luck, and good VR.

Cheers,

DB

[dbawel]

See Above.

[jellix]

@dbawel Hi DB,

thank you a lot for your nice answer! I'm very happy to read that you and other people seriously are trying to get good results with VR-Headsets. It's quite obviously that babylon could be a nice technology to get cool things running easily on those devices. For now I only have a Samsung Gear VR equipped with a Galaxy S7. I'm working as a screen-designer in a german company and there I am developing some 3D-solutions with Babylon (previously with Three) for our customers. Unfortunately I'm not sure that we can provide some really professional solutions with the Gear VR and Babylon within the Samsung Browser. Thank you for the PG-example. I've tried it but it shows exactly the "wrong" kind of view (in my mind). So first I have to ask what kind of 3D-View-fullscreen-Version of the browser do you use for it? The "360 2D" seems to work, the "360 3D-SBS (side by side)" not really. Although I thought that the 3D-sbs mode should be the right one. Nevertheless there are so many parameters within babylon that are not well documented. The different camatypes are clear. But there are also VRCameraMetrics and I don't know exactly if I should use them to configure my 3D scene to my device (resolution and so on). By the way - I already tried to tweak my camera with metrics but it didn't change anything. And there are some strange distortions that I cannot get under control for now. The camera is also so "shaky" because the gyroscope is so sensitive (only in the browser, not within the oculus-app). So I still have to tweak my scene a lot to get it onto the professional level. 

But I will definetly continue to work on that technology to get better results. As you already mentioned, the technology is still at it's beginning and so I am (with babylon and VR-devices). So I am excited as you about what will come :-)

[jellix]

@ozRocker

thanks, this looks nice. But within the Gear VR I don't have a fullscreen-button. So I just can view it on a 2d plane. Could you implement a fullscreen-button to your example? :-)

[ozRocker]

I agree with you @jellix  The VR camera in Babylon.js really does need work to be professional VR.  I showed that site to a CEO of a big media agency a few weeks ago and he was really confused, twisting and turning the headset to try and get the VR effect to work.  Usually if something is lacking in Babylon.js its simply because its a feature that people aren't paying attention to so it becomes a low priority.  But if someone questions a feature, comes up with suggestions, posts up their experiments, then it sparks some interest and more people start getting involved, more resources are allocated to it.  

[jellix]

Hi @ozRocker,

thank you, too for your thoughts and experiences.

Of course this topic has to grow by the time and I'm pretty sure that we all are gonna go on with it ;-)

[dbawel]

Hey All,

There's allot to address here, and unfortunately, I don't have the time right now - but that's only right now. In a few days, I can address most of what you are asking, and help you along a bit more with setting up and understanding your camera matrices'. And you should certainly adjust your properties to stablize your camera further as you should be able to avoid most any camera artifacts all together - depending on hardware, application, etc. - of course.

In my opinion, the Samsung Browser is only valuable for viewing scenes inside the Oculus app - otherwise, I use Chrome and/or other browsers in full screen mode. and avoid plugging in the usb connection. Then you are open to practically any VR and AR application (please begin using AR, as everyone is overlooking this currently - and ths is where the future is taking us - and rapidly once retinal scanning displays hit the market. As I mentioned, everything changes - and we're talking massive world changes to all media and the consumption of media. And you and I are going to be right there on the forefront of what's coming, as well as pushing the envelope far enough to truly change people's lives. 

I know this all sounds like sci-fi, but it's far more real and even a bit scary where we will end up in just a couple of years. Go mess with the Samsung browser to realize its value, and start looking beyond Oculus as soon as new devices are released - however, Oculus is great training ground for what's coming. Just try your best to push it now so that you're ready when everyone else is still tring to just make sense of it all. But start using AR as integrating the external camera on your phone in GearVR will begin simulating what the future is bringing us. Even when at Lockheed VR Labs, we were usig the cameras on the iphone for image analysis and "virtually" display in VR (AR) how to replace an engine on the Joint Strike Fighter by a technician with no experience working on the JSF. The headset would work with the camera video in real-time, and realistically deonstrate how the engine is replaced using your own set of hands in the view, and relyably complete highly complex tasks such as this. The Matrix is already here. But it goes far beyond examples such as this

Anyway, I'm going way out from topic here, and will do my best to help with the setup of AR and VR scenes on the GearVR in the coming weeks - if not sooner. DK, @davrous, @JCPalmer, and many others have done most of the work for us already, and it's getting fairly simple to set up quality VR using Oculus, Vive, and many other devices as we speak today. I'm still somewhat of a novice in this realm currently, however, I've been working in VR and AR for more than 20 years - so I'll be able to provide additional insight into the what, why, and how of the VR and aR world. Anyone such as Oculus who tells you this is all new are lying. Even Jim C, tried to convince everyone that Avatar was something new at the time - which it truly was, but not the technology behind it. We already have most everything we need, we simply need to build upon what's already there, and not simply pretend as though this is all a new frontier. 

Just try and remind myself and others to look at this in the near future when we have time - as it all works now.

Cheers,

DB

[jellix]

@dbawel that's very interesting.

And it's good to hear that you will take some time in the future to give some advice and support for developers like me. A very good info is that you don't work with the samsung-browser but with other browsers like firefox or chrome. This is also my result after one hard day of testing the samsung browser :-)

And it's not that I'm dissapointed about the current possibilities with babylon and the GearVR. It's just a new field to explore. And of course there are many things to get known. In my opinion it's espacially the documentation that could be better. Many classes (like the VRCameraMetrics) could be described in a better way, with examples and so on. But I also know that this is all growing up in the future. For now I will invest some more work to improve my scene and my skills :-)

I'm sure we'll stay in contact with this forum.

[dbawel]

@jellix -

I'm actually not a huge fan of the Oculus format and devices, however, I find that developing for these are probably the most fun I am having right now. And this is off of topic - but at the end of the day, I often lay down and watch a 3D movie on my GearVR, as the resolution is as good as it gets right now (depending on how you encode), and I use a ScanDisk 32 Gbit compination USB and Ultra USB memory stick to expand and to move files to my S6 and S7 phones - which I personally use on the GearVR. Just keep in mind that both the S6 and S7 are USB 2.0 (go figure out why), so be careful what you buy.

But as I was saying, at the end of the day, I generally plug in a new 3D movie which if encoded properly, looks fantastic on the GearVR. Last night I watched "Gravity" with Sandra Bullock, and the 3D quality was fantastic. And these USB sticks provide me with SD memory as well as the easability of moving files efficiently from other devices as well as encoding high quality blue ray movies in 3D to watch on my GearVR.

As I said, this is off topic, but one of the best features of the GearVR which I find a blast to use almost everyday. And with our own server technology, my Wife and I are able to both stream and watch 3D movie together - however, I generally download the movies to both of our headsets, and simply sync the video so that we are "virtually" watching the movie together.

Again, I'll begin posing some real info to the forum as I further my development on the GearVR, so please keep these topics alive so that I can add what I learn as we move along in the development of VR as it exists today.

Enjoy a 3D movie tonight! The quality is actually really good, and I now find I actually enjoy it as much as my home theater which has a 20 ft diagonal screen with full DTS and TrueHD Dolby audio. Much better than I thought it would be at this time - however the Oculus format usin the S6 and S7 is far better than anything else out right now if you're a huge geek like me. And it's also great to use in the massage chair which is now becomming an addiction every night.

If any of you have your own personal experiences and addictions, let's hear em'. Distraction has always been an incredibly valuable tool for doing the best work; as David becomes a very dull boy without external (or in this case internal) stimulation. Tonight I believe it will be the new World of Warcraft in 3D.

Cheers,

DB